Aza Nizi Maza ArtStudio

Aza Nizi Maza (The name of the studio comes from the movie “8½”. In this Fellini’s masterpiece one of the characters, Guido Anselmi, when in crisis, recalls his childhood when he would exclaim this magic spell – “Aza Nizi Maza” and with its help, he would find an imaginary treasure.)

By blurring the lines between topics that children can or cannot talk about, Aza Nizi Maza art studio completely changes the idea of ​​what is to be considered “children’s creativity”. 
The art reveals the wonders of the kids’ imagination, inside each piece is a mystery encrypted by the children’s sincerity and freedom of perception. These artworks bring joy to everyone! Their innocence, naivete, and children’s inherent openness almost raise them to a level of a profound adult philosophy. Finding the underlying storylines for the depicted images, their deeper meanings, together with an individual approach to every child – these are the basic principles of the studio.
They strive to discover every child’s abilities by looking into their rich inner world, rather than imposing academic clichés taught by conventional art institutions.
The kids are the ones who choose what and how to draw. This is a different approach to problem-solving. Children do not just follow the directions but offer their own solutions. That is why “black is not always just black”, and “white does not always turn out to be white”.
The artworks are a direct result of a creative process. The children’s continuous experimentations and innovative ideas are always promoted and nurtured.
The studio focuses on encouragement, not criticism so that the child is not afraid to create. The teachers believe in the idea that “Mistakes are not to be feared, for sometimes they can be more talented than the artist.”
The kids read and look at works of famous Ukrainian and world-renowned artists.
For each piece, the young artist writes a poem – a sort of author’s commentary on the image. This allows kids to develop imagination and creative thinking.
The Aza Nizi Maza studio promotes the development of multi-instrumental artists, people with abstract and conceptual thinking. With this methodology, along with painting, the young artists will be able to create sculptures, graphics, and other various forms of creative expression.

Before the war, AZA NIZI MAZA was a creative space founded in 2012 by Mykola Kolomiets. It combined work in the following directions:
– art classes on painting, graphics, and sculpture for children and adults; inclusive space – a group of artists with Down syndrome, worked in the studio; lectures on art; book project – the studio did projects to create books on contemporary art; exhibitions – the studio organized more than 60 exhibitions at the best exhibition grounds in Ukraine.

The main focus was the teaching activity. Teachers have developed an approach to realize the potential of individual aspects of each student. The classes weren’t limited to techniques but also introduced students to the modern context of art, the history of art (in practice), showing how artists of different eras solved similar problems. The learning process aims to develop imagination and lead students to their path and style. The studio used a variety of painting graphics and sculptures techniques.

From the first day of the war, the AZA NIZI MAZA studio became a bomb shelter and a transfer point for many people. Creative projects are also ongoing. The current one is a poster diary, “WHAT I SEE” where Mykola reinterpreted the students’ works in the context of wartime. This project has received a lot of attention in Ukraine and abroad.

Because of the war, we put classes in the studio on hold. But we have launched the classes at one of the Kharkiv metro stations.

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